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Variometer
In aviation, a variometer – also known as a rate of climb and descent indicator (RCDI), rate-of-climb indicator, vertical speed indicator (VSI), or vertical velocity indicator (VVI) – is one of the flight instruments in an aircraft used to inform the pilot of the rate of descent or climb.Federal Aviation Administration, ''Glider Flying Handbook'', Skyhorse Publishing Inc., 2007 pages 4-7 and 4-8 It can be calibrated in metres per second, feet per minute (1 ft/min = 0.00508 m/s) or knots (1 kn ≈ 0.514 m/s), depending on country and type of aircraft. It is typically connected to the aircraft's external static pressure source. In powered flight, the pilot makes frequent use of the VSI to ascertain that level flight is being maintained, especially during turning maneuvers. In gliding, the instrument is used almost continuously during normal flight, often with an audible output, to inform the pilot of rising or sinking air. It is usual for gliders to be e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sailplane
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplanes are aerodynamically streamlined and so can fly a significant distance forward for a small decrease in altitude. In North America the term 'sailplane' is also used to describe this type of aircraft. In other parts of the English-speaking world, the word 'glider' is more common. Types Gliders benefit from producing the least drag for any given amount of lift, and this is best achieved with long, thin wings, a slender fuselage and smooth surfaces with an absence of protuberances. Aircraft with these features are able to soar – climb efficiently in rising air produced by thermals or hills. In still air, sailplanes can glide long distances at high speed with a minimum loss of height in between. Sailplanes have rigid wings and either ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gliding
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is also used for the sport. Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s. Initially the objective was to increase the duration of flights but soon pilots attempted cross-country flights away from the place of launch. Improvements in aerodynamics and in the understanding of weather phenomena have allowed greater distances at higher average speeds. Long distances are now flown using any of the main sources of rising air: ridge lift, thermals and lee waves. When conditions are favourable, experienced pilots can now fly hundreds of kilometres before returning to their home airfields; occasionally flights of more than are achieved. Some competitive pilots fly in races around pre-defined courses. These gliding competitions test pilots' abilities to mak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gliding
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is also used for the sport. Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s. Initially the objective was to increase the duration of flights but soon pilots attempted cross-country flights away from the place of launch. Improvements in aerodynamics and in the understanding of weather phenomena have allowed greater distances at higher average speeds. Long distances are now flown using any of the main sources of rising air: ridge lift, thermals and lee waves. When conditions are favourable, experienced pilots can now fly hundreds of kilometres before returning to their home airfields; occasionally flights of more than are achieved. Some competitive pilots fly in races around pre-defined courses. These gliding competitions test pilots' abilities to mak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerotow
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is also used for the sport. Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s. Initially the objective was to increase the duration of flights but soon pilots attempted cross-country flights away from the place of launch. Improvements in aerodynamics and in the understanding of weather phenomena have allowed greater distances at higher average speeds. Long distances are now flown using any of the main sources of rising air: ridge lift, thermals and lee waves. When conditions are favourable, experienced pilots can now fly hundreds of kilometres before returning to their home airfields; occasionally flights of more than are achieved. Some competitive pilots fly in races around pre-defined courses. These gliding competitions test pilots' abilities to mak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Irving
Frank Irving (7 April 1925 – August 2005) was a British aeronautical engineer, glider pilot, author and university lecturer. Early life and education Francis George Irving was born in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He attended St. Edward's College, and then Liverpool University. Aeronautics Irving graduated from Liverpool University in 1944 with a First in Engineering. After graduation, he worked as a civilian flight test observer at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire. In 1945 he completed the course for civilian observers at the Empire Test Pilots School. He began lecturing in aeronautical engineering at Imperial College London in 1947 and continued until his retirement. He was Warden of Beit Hall, a hall of residence for students of Imperial College, from 1950 to 1975. He eventually became a Senior Lecturer in the field of performance, stability and control of aircraft. He authored ''An Introduction to the Longitudinal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flight Instruments
Flight instruments are the instruments in the cockpit of an aircraft that provide the pilot with data about the flight situation of that aircraft, such as altitude, airspeed, vertical speed, heading and much more other crucial information in flight. They improve safety by allowing the pilot to fly the aircraft in level flight, and make turns, without a reference outside the aircraft such as the horizon. Visual flight rules (VFR) require an airspeed indicator, an altimeter, and a compass or other suitable magnetic direction indicator. Instrument flight rules (IFR) additionally require a gyroscopic pitch-bank (artificial horizon), direction (directional gyro) and rate of turn indicator, plus a slip-skid indicator, adjustable altimeter, and a clock. Flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) require radio navigation instruments for precise takeoffs and landings. The term is sometimes used loosely as a synonym for cockpit instruments as a whole, in which context it can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermistor
A thermistor is a type of resistor whose resistance is strongly dependent on temperature, more so than in standard resistors. The word thermistor is a portmanteau of ''thermal'' and ''resistor''. Thermistors are divided based on their conduction model. Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) thermistors have ''less'' resistance at ''higher'' temperatures, while Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) thermistors have ''more'' resistance at ''higher'' temperatures. Hence, a PTC thermistor's resistance is directly proportional to temperature. NTC thermistor are widely used as inrush current limiters, temperature sensors, while PTC thermistors are used as self-resetting overcurrent protectors, and self-regulating heating elements. An operational temperature range of a thermistor is dependent on the probe type and is typically between −100 °C and 300 °C (−148 °F and 572 °F). Types Depending on materials used, thermistors are classified into two types: *With ''NTC'' the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Kronfeld
Squadron Leader Robert Kronfeld, AFC (5 May 1904 – 12 February 1948) was an Austrian-born gliding champion and sailplane designer of the 1920s and 30s. He became a British subject and an RAF test pilot. He was killed testing a glider in 1948. Early life Kronfeld was born in Vienna, the son of dentist also called Robert Kronfeld (1874–1946), who was nephew of Adolf Kronfeld (de) (doctor, writer), Ernst Moriz Kronfeld (de) (botanist), both Galician Jews. In his youth his favourite sport was boating. Gliding As a young man, he visited the Wasserkuppe in Germany and became passionate about the sport of gliding that was developing there. So Kronfeld became a member of the first Austrian gliding school. He befriended Walter Georgii, who was a meteorologist working at the nearby Darmstadt University of Technology and who had recently discovered thermals. Kronfeld became something of a test-pilot for Georgii, investigating this still-new phenomenon with the assistance of a v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Kantrowitz
Arthur Robert Kantrowitz (October 20, 1913 – November 29, 2008) was an American scientist, engineer, and educator. Kantrowitz grew up in The Bronx and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School.Overbye, Dennis"Arthur R. Kantrowitz, Whose Wide-Ranging Research Had Many Applications, Is Dead at 95" ''The New York Times'', December 9, 2008. Accessed December 9, 2008. He earned his B.S., M.A. and, in 1947, his Ph.D. degrees in physics from Columbia University. Early life Kantrowitz was born in New York City on October 28, 1913. His mother was a costume designer and his father ran a clinic in the Bronx. As a child, Arthur built an electrocardiograph from old radio parts, working with his brother Adrian (who would go on to perform the first heart transplant in the United States.)Hoffman, Jascha"Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz, Cardiac Pioneer, Dies at 90" ''The New York Times'', November 19, 2008. Accessed November 19, 2008. Career During his graduate studies at Columbia, Kantrowitz s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musterle
''Lore'' and a copy, ''Musterle'', were high performance sailplanes designed at Darmstadt by Paul Laubenthal. ''Lore'' was flown successfully by the well known glider pilot Wolf Hirth at the 1929 Rhön (Wasserkuppe) glider competition. ''Musterle'' was used by Hirth used to demonstrate the possibilities of "blue sky" thermalling for the first time. Design and development The Akademische Fliegeruppe Darmstadt, founded in 1921, was the first of several Akafliegs associated with German universities intended to give student teams experience of aircraft design. They rapidly acquired a good reputation for inventive glider design. As well as designing and building aircraft as part of their academic programme, they also received some orders from individuals or clubs. These, built in ones or twos, brought welcome funds to the group. In 1928-9 Paul Laubenthal, then at the Akaflieg, designed a Darmstadt sailplane, built by Klemm Leichtflugzeugbau, for the Würtenburger gliding c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul MacCready
Paul B. MacCready Jr. (September 25, 1925 – August 28, 2007) was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the first Kremer prize. He devoted his life to developing more efficient transportation vehicles that could "do more with less". Early life and education Born in New Haven, Connecticut to a medical family, MacCready was an inventor from an early age and won a national contest building a model flying machine at the age of 15. "I was always the smallest kid in the class ... by a good bit, and was not especially coordinated, and certainly not the athlete type, who enjoyed running around outside, and was socially kind of immature, not the comfortable leader, teenager type. And so, when I began getting into model airplanes, and getting into contests and creating new things, I probably got more psychological benefit from that than I would have from some of the other typical school things." Mac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
